Owner: La Gringa's Blogicito URL:http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 01:24:28 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Gardening and living in La Ceiba, Honduras. Neither are easy for this American woman. Site statistics:Click here
Road trip: Along the Cangrejal River road 2007-03-07 02:44:00 Horse and cart along the Cangrejal riverThese are just a few of the photos that I took along the Cangrejal River
road on our trip to Yaruca. The photo of the horse and cart above is not an unusual sight in Honduras, even in town in La Ceiba. These people are gathering wood for cooking in a wood burning stove.I found this excellent map of Rio Cangrejal on the Jungle River Rafting site*. Click the map to enlarge it and you can see the Rio Cangrejal running southeast from the right of the La Ceiba dot. El Naranjo is listed, too. Yaruca is further south near the big blue '
Road trip: Yaruca 2007-03-08 17:42:00 Happy boys riding their horseAfter three hours of driving, we finally made it to Yaruca. Not that it is that far from La Ceiba, it was just because of all the picture taking and orchid shopping along the way. Click the map to enlarge it and you can see the Rio Cangrejal running southeast from the right of the La Ceiba dot. Yaruca is further south near the big blue '
Orchids and other plants along the Cangrejal River 2007-03-09 05:29:00 Orchids growing on top of fence posts, Yaruca, HondurasWe saw these orchids growing in several spots in Yaruca, Honduras. They look the same as a couple of the ones that I bought. The orchid lady said they were purple, so I think they may be the same.This bougainvillea was also in Yaruca.Six foot tall begonia in Yaruca, Honduras.This fern was growing out of the rock wall along
side the road.These ferns were growing in a shady area by the side of the road. We have a lot of these ferns growing on the "wild" hill on our property. They are deciduous and even though we don't get cold weather, they die back every year.These are the orchids that I found alongside the road! Aren't the blooms beautiful? There were no leaves on these. Just a bulb and a long stem with the blossoms.I know that some would say that you shouldn't take orchids from the wild. Let me explain. This was by the very edge of the road. The vegetation by the sides of the road is routinely macheted, so I think that I'm actu Read more:Orchids
, River
La Gringa's email subscribers 2007-03-12 00:48:00 For those of you (50 of you! ♥ ) who receive La Gringa
's Blogicito by email from Feedburner, I wanted to point out a new feature. At the end of each article, you will see a link to "comment." Clicking on that link will take you directly to the comment section on my blog for that particular article where you can read the other reader comments and/or make a new comment. Sometimes the email updates go out before there are any comments but if it is a topic of particular interest to you, you might want to check back later to see what others have said.While it is always nice to receive emails from La Gringa readers, posting your comments on my blog often spurs further conversation among the readers which is a good thing! I promise you that I do read all the comments and generally respond to all of them. So try it out! Click on "comment" below and drop me a line.Normally the articles look pretty much just like they do on the blog, but the last few articles which have had so many photos are
Buying old stuff at the new stores 2007-03-12 07:14:00 I've done a little ranting about the "old stuff
" that somehow ends up in the stores
in Honduras here and here. I'd really like to know what is going on. It can't just be a coincidence or bad inventory control. The stores in La Ceiba are more likely to run out of things than to have an over-supply of inventory. Sometimes some stores are out of things like sugar, coffee, flour − things that are produced in Honduras!These are some things I bought at a couple of different stores on Friday, March 10, 2007.I remember buying cream cheese in the U.S. and the expiration date always being around 6 to 9 months away. It amazed me that it could possibly last that long.In case you can't read it, this one expires March 31, twenty days from now.Canned vegetables have years of life! I never used to even check the expiration dates. Why bother? Here in La Ceiba, I have to check the dates on EVERYTHING! These diced tomatoes expire June 6, 2007.Wow! A three month shelf life. That really puts a damper Read more:Buying
Minor (social) cultural shockwaves 2007-03-14 02:50:00 People, who don't want to spoil their whole evening by sitting around with their hosts, will ask for a to-go plate for their dessert.Similarly, it is often expected to carry home a heaping plateful of food for the husband or wife who didn't want to join you for dinner.I have learned the hard way that if I am going to give someone some food to put it on a paper plate. It seems that if you give someone cake wrapped up on your best china plate, they consider that your plate is a gift to them as well. After more than a month, I had to go ask a neighbor for my plate back!There is a reason why the custom is that the food is plated and served to guests instead of serving buffet style. At one gathering I had 6 pounds of fajita meat for 12 guests. The first guest put about 3 pounds of meat on his plate.A friend told me about putting bottles of liquor out for people to help themselves at a party. They did − some uninvited guests carried a quart size bottle of liquor to their table and finish Read more:Minor
A peek at the garden today, March 14 2007-03-15 06:06:00 Heliconia rostrata The Heliconia rostrata (Parrot's beak) that we bought for L. 25 (U.S. $1.32) in El Pino is doing well. There are many new shoots and it's been blooming constantly since we planted it in September 2006. The blooms are very long lasting. This is a new bloom and the upper photo shows a full bloom. That flower is almost two feet long (.6 m.).The photo at right shows the heliconia next to Russelia equisetiformis (common name coral plant or firecracker plant) which also blooms pretty much all the time.The truth is that I killed my first firecracker plants by forgetting to water them but these came back from seeds which had dropped on the ground. These plants stretch to about 6 feet tall (2 m.). My neighbor gave me the hollowed out tree trunk. This is a close up of the firecracker plant blooms.These weird bananas look like some kind of freak of nature. They are about 6 inches long and 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide (15 cm. by 6-7.5 cm.) The picture is a little confusing because Read more:March
Tostones recipe (twice fried plantains) 2007-03-16 07:13:00 TostonesIngredients:2 green plantains, the fatter the betteroil for fryingsalt to tasteHeat oil in a heavy skillet or deep fryer to 375°F. Peel* plantains and cut into 1 inch slices.Place a few plantain slices in the hot oil and cook until tender and golden in color, about 3-4 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining slices.While the slices are still warm, smash them with your rock, a meat mallet, or a large flat bottomed cup until they are about 1/4 inch thick.This photo shows the size of the smashed tostones compared to one unsmashed one on the left. The size of the tostones will depend upon the thickness of the plantains and the thickness of the slices.Return a few at a time to the hot oil, without overcrowding, and continue frying until crisp and deep golden, but not brown, about 3 more minutes. When they are perfectly done, they are crispy on the outside but still tender inside.Drain on paper towels and season lightly with salt. Serve as a snack or side dish Honduran
Weird banana mystery solved 2007-03-15 20:26:00 Popoulu BananaReader Ruthy solved the banana
mystery. She identified my weird bananas as Popoulu. Once I had a name, I looked it up. That's it! Different sources say that there are from 400 to 1,000 varieties of bananas so I wasn't even going to try to identify it. I was counting on my Honduran readers to help me out and sure enough, they did. Thanks, Ruthy.We be bananas, which has a compilation of information from different sources, says that Popoulu is originally from Polynesia and is popular in Hawaii. They say that the banana has a salmon pink flesh with a slightly acidic apple-like flavor that can be cooked or eaten fresh when it is ripe. Ruthy recommended cooking the ripe ones with brown sugar and cinnamon. Some sources refer to Popoulu as a plantain rather than a banana, but I'm not even going to get into that! We bought several banana and plantain pups (baby plants that grow up around the mother plant) from a man who was growing them in his backyard. It's very strange Read more:Weird
More OSHA (un)approved 2007-03-17 20:05:00 Homemade ladder and scaffoldingReader Juan left a link to a picture of construction scaffolding in Mexico in his comment to my previous article. That made me think about some old construction pictures, so I decided you might be interested in the andamios (scaffolding) that were used on our house construction.If you can open this photo and enlarge it (Google's free Picasa is excellent for that), you'll see the homemade ladder and the andamios in more detail. Braces of 2"x4"s are nailed to the window frames and/or nailed to a vertical board standing inside the house to support the tall vertical 2"x4"s outside the house − kind of like an 'H' with a short leg on one side. The horizontal 2"x10"s or even two 1"x10"s stacked together are what the workers walk on.I'm not going to translate the measurements to centimeters because here in Honduras, although we use the metric system for most measurements, wood is measured in inches and feet. A 2x4" board would measure 5x10 cm. (As an asid
Yes, we have no gasoline today 2007-03-18 07:46:00 They had it. They just couldn't sell it. One of the gas stations in town was closed today. The gas pump attendant who couldn't pump gas told El Jefe that the cashier didn't show up for work today. Can you imagine this? How much money did the gas station and convenience store lose today because it was closed? Will the other employees get paid even though they couldn't work? I think that if it was my gas station or if I was the manager, I would be running the cash register or pumping gas, or whatever it took to keep the business going on a busy Saturday. Saturday is payday in Honduras! I would have also cross-trained employees or had a backup cashier, because surely you can't close your business every time the cashier doesn't show up?Here in La Ceiba, managers usually don't step up to help out when things get busy. It's beneath their position in life. Bank lines can be 40 or 50 people deep, while managers and others sit around filing their fingernails or giggling on the telephone
Disorganization and depression 2007-03-21 00:30:00 Great Kiskadee, our early morning alarm clockJust a quick note. I'm feeling overwhelmed for some reason. It's not that I don't have anything to write about − al contrario! (to the contrary!) I have so much to say that I'm going in several different directions at once. I have articles drafted which need photos, photos which need articles, a stack of newspaper clippings that need talking about, several articles that need follow-up, and many ideas that I need to get down on paper. All that and I can't seem to finish a single thing.I'm afraid I've become a procrastinator. Also, I have a problem with wanting everything to be perfect with all the little loose ended tied in a knot. Don't get me wrong! I know that I never achieve perfection but those of us who strive for it sometimes have a problem ever finishing anything or even starting some things for fear of not measuring up.Another thing is that I've been depressed. We've lost two of our chickens and another one seems that sh Read more:depression
La Gringa's FAQ 2007-03-22 05:57:00 Every good website has a FAQ (Frequently asked questions), right? So here we go.How do I find stuff on your blog?I'm embarrassed to tell you how long I read blogs before I noticed that Blogger search box in the upper left corner! It really works. If you are looking for something specific, like, say Dijon mustard, you can search this blog by using the search box. Dijon mustard gives five articles − I'm obsessed!Another way to find what you're looking for is with the list of topics (categories) in the sidebar. If you came to this blog to read about food, for example, click on the topic in the sidebar and you'll get all of the articles related to that topic together on one or more pages.But I want to know something else!If there is something particular you are interested in about La Ceiba, don't hesitate to ask. New ideas are always welcome. If I know something about it or can easily find out (I'm basically lazy, you know), I'll be happy to write about it. Don't try to give me a Read more:Gringa
Trying to catch up with the Garcias 2007-03-24 22:49:00 (No, ours isn't quite this old, but....)We are so behind the times. We don't have IPods or Blackberries or camera phones. I wouldn't even have a cellphone if we could get a telephone line here in the house. Our stereo is about 10 years old, our TV is about 16! The VCR is probably about 9 years old. The computer is almost 6 years old. The only new thing I had was my camera which I broke! So much for those "rich Americans."We used to rent movies about once a month and spend the whole weekend watching them. We haven't done that for ages (like more than a year). The last time I asked El Jefe to pick up some movies from the rental place while he was in town, he told me that he has been trying but almost all they have are DVD's and he can't find any video tapes to rent. So again I say, so much for those "rich Americans!" Apparently locals all have DVD players and we don't.El Jefe went to San Pedro Sula yesterday and while there, he bought a DVD player! He's out renting movies right n
A new maid, again 2007-03-27 20:12:00 I've been keeping a secret from you. We have a new maid or housekeeper, empleada, whatever you want to call her. Here in La Ceiba, the Honduran ladies usually call them muchachas, which literally means girls. Not very politically correct, but that's what it is.She started last Wednesday but I didn't want to mention it just in case she turned out like the last one who left after two days. Here it is Tuesday and she's back again. ¡Ay caramba!She is a Garífuna from Corozal, a little town east of La Ceiba. (The Garífunas have an interesting history.) Josaly has four children, the youngest of whom is only six months and she does have a husband. Her husband is a fisherman and he also makes jewelry and souvenirs out of coconut shells. I'm going to try to get her to bring some one day so I can take some pictures.I don't know why, but I was telling her (or trying to tell, I can never be entirely sure with my Spanish) about how I don't understand why we can never keep a housekeeper
World Water Day 2007-03-27 04:11:00 Waterfall in balneario Bahr, in the community of Yojoa, HondurasMarch 22, 2007 was World
Water Day. And guess what? Sunday we had no water! How ironic. Or how prescient.Not having water at least part of the time is the norm in Honduras; having running water 24 hours a day is a luxury. Most times when we don't have water in our colonia (neighborhood), it is because the electricity goes out and once the neighborhood tank empties, there is no water until the electricity comes back on. Sometimes the pump breaks and parts have to be ordered from another city or country. Sometimes construction workers break a pipe and we have no water for a day or two until the pipe gets repaired. That is more frequent than you might imagine.In much of Honduras, though, there is no running water. In some areas big water tanker trucks deliver water to people who bring their buckets to the truck to fill up. Some companies, such as some of the coffee companies, supply water for free as a community service.In o
What world does this guy live in? 2007-03-28 18:10:00 Honduran Minister of TourismHonduran Minister of Tourism Ricardo Martinez would like to see 50% of the Honduran population traveling this Easter week. What world does this guy live in? Here is an excerpt from Honduras This Week Online (HTW):He welcomes the expected increase of 200,000 national tourists but he would like to see more, if it weren’t for the limited hotel capacity. “1.8 million Hondurans traveling during three days is not much. We would like to see at least 50 percent of the Honduran population traveling.”Apparently no one told him that 60% of the population lives below the poverty line and would have a tough time coming up with bus fare for their families much less money for restaurants and hotels. Not to mention the fact that some portion of the population will have to work in those restaurants and hotels and drive the buses, etc.I really think this is so typical of the elite who become politicians. It's a little like the former (I'm happy to say former) ministe
Road trip: El Olvido 2007-03-30 02:52:00 The pilot and car on the zipline to El Olvido, HondurasAmazingly, I still have photos to show you from our road trip. We passed El Olvido on the Cangrejal Road to Yarucca. El Olvido is a very small village on the opposite side of the river. The only access over the river is by this zipline, an aerial man-powered car. It costs 10 lempiras (about 53 US cents) to cross each way. The "pilot" said the village is called El Olvido (The Oversight) because they have been forgotten by the government. They have been asking the government to build a bridge for many, many years. I'm a little confused as to whether this is part of El Pital or if El Pital is another place. I asked the attendant if this was the only access, how were the houses built? I assumed he was going to tell me that there used to be a bridge, but no! All the materials were transported across the river by this zipline.That is so hard to imagine. Our house, for example took tens of thousands of bags of concrete, while this car
Honduras Maps 2007-03-31 00:53:00 Topigraphical map of Honduras
I have always loved maps! Whenever I've gone on a road trip in the U.S., I spend hours and hours following along on the road map, looking up the "sites of interest." Geography was one of my favorite classes. I'm not sure if it is even taught anymore. Every time I open an atlas, I just get lost in time. There aren't a lot of good updated maps of Honduras. We had a large map which had some handy street maps of the larger cities. Someone stole it out of our car! I was able to find these maps on the internet which I thought might be of interest to you. Most of these are from (of all places) the University of Texas Library. The site indicates that these are in the public domain so it is okay for me to use them and okay for you to copy them if you wish. You might get a better copy if you go the link below each map though.Topigraphical map (shown at top) You can see that most of Honduras is mountainous. The large flat area to the east called Gracias a Dios
Workers' lives in the banana republic 2007-04-02 09:22:00 What is she painting on the banana
sthat require her to use a respirator?Photo: La Prensa, HondurasSharon (A cup of coffee blog) from New Zealand wrote about an interesting article about Honduras from Ireland of all places. Called "Life in the banana republic," it not only discusses workers in the banana industry but also workers in the maquilas (factories) in the ‘free-trade zones’: "The country’s sweatshop-friendly industrial culture helps to ensure that Honduras remains one of the poorest countries in impoverished Central America." "Sweatshop-friendly" is the right term. New businesses operating in Honduras pay no taxes for the first 10 years. Just recently the government of Honduras agreed to reduce the minimum daily wage by L.20 for the next ten years for companies who want to operate new maquilas in the southern part of the country.The government, despite protests, agreed to a minimum wage of L.86 per day (US$4.55). Some of the companies who have indicated interest in the ne Read more:Workers
I know what we are having for dinner tonight 2007-04-01 20:22:00 Domino's Pizza in La CeibaThis was delivered by motorcycle today. The translation is "We are already open!" I had absolutely no idea! There is so much construction going on in La Ceiba and we always wonder what the buildings are going to be but they rarely have signs. This was a nice surprise.I thought it was a little odd that they weren't advertising a promotion, but that's the way things are here. We are supposed to be grateful that they are here. I'm sure there will be long lines for the next couple of weeks. Notice the ad carries an "official" rubber stamp. They do love to "officialize" things in Honduras.My excitement as seeing this flyer reminded me of an article written by Sharon at the Feather Ridge blog. Sharon lives on the tiny island of Guanaja off the coast of Honduras. In this article she discussed how we expatriates are excited about little things that we wouldn't have blinked an eye at in the states, such as the thrill I felt when spotting the new Baskins Robbins ic
And the winner finally has her prize 2007-04-03 16:15:00 New growth unfurling on a Sago palmAnnie at The Transplantable Rose finally received her prize
for winning my contest. It was a pretty tough contest, but Annie is a real pro at identifying plants. I thought the photo was tricky and looked more like a bundle of green beans to me. When I announced the winner
, I included some photos from five days later to show what the plant ultimately looked like.I'd like to blame the delay on the Honduran mail system but I really can't. I procrastinated for so long trying to decide what she might like from Honduras. When I finally got it all together, we sent it "Express mail," which in Honduras means 6 days to the U.S. The clerk assured El Jefe that they don't steal the packages − there is something about getting that kind of assurance that just makes you worry more. But sure enough, it made it there in exactly 6 days. ¡Ay caramba!Part of my problem was that every time I picked up something that I thought was nice, the girl in the store said, "T
Are we grateful? 2007-04-04 23:00:00 Photo: BBC UKSomeone thinks that I, along with other Hondurans, are "ungrateful." I always like it when people lump me in with Hondurans because that means I'm assimilating. ;-)My loyal readers jumped in to defend me. Thanks for defending my honor, readers! I really appreciate it. There isn't a whole lot that I need to add, but knowing me, you'll know that I have something to say about everything. Here is the anonymous comment:Hi Gringa,I don't get it. I can't believe I just sat at my desk for almost one hour reading your blog and not once did I read a positive note on Honduras. Why are you there? I agree with all the other people that tell you to leave. Hondurans do not need ungrateful people living there. There are enough of natives that do that therefore they don't need another foreigner being so ungrateful.I'm not sure what Anonymous was looking for in my blog. My blogicito includes 290 articles so I doubt that he could have read even a fraction of them in one hour. But that
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